Sid can't win in these situations. If after the playoffs he said he had an injury people would say he was making excuses. Considering he thought therapy could improve his condition, I don't blame him for not disclosing he was injured.

I completely disagree with people saying that everyone would've thought Sid was making excuses. It was blatantly apparent something was wrong. By not saying what it was, it made everyone start to question his character which is infinitely more damaging then saying your wrist is messed up. Massive PR fail in the Crosby camp. Hope they live and learn.

This helps to explain 87's inability/unwillingness to carry and/or shoot the puck. It doesn't explain his ghastly giveaways or lack of effort on the back check at crucial times including overtime and game 7 goals against.

This does bring into question Bylsma's handling of the entire playoffs. If he knew Sid's hands/creative powers were physically mitigated, and if the injury was serious he would have had to know, why was he forcing Malkin onto his line to attempt to force offense? The smart thing to do would have been to load up Kunitz and Neal with Malkin and let Sid's line be more of a decoy and/or checking unit. Yet another example of Bylsma's tunnel vision and stubbornness running the team into a wall.

- Metaphorically, the bus is backing up. The LGP history archives will be consulted, and those LGP'ers that threw the Captain under said bus can either continue to argue they are not wrong and get run over with mouths still flapping, or just lie down and take the bus hit like the speed bump that it will be.

- Realistically, wrist surgery is no fun. It can take a while to fully recover and will certainly affected a skilled players game until healed. Hopefully this surgery is being done early enough that it fully heals before training camp starts (actually ASAP as Sid likely starts training earlier)

- Fanatically, the Captain is even more media saavy than most people give him credit for. BUT, he must root out the source and feed him/her to this guy

Avyran wrote:Why lie about it for so long? I mean, everyone saw he was playing poorly. I don't understand why he'd want to hide it after the playoffs finish... unless he didn't know about it until now?

He hasn't been lying about it. He was in rehab. Rehab didn't improve the problem. Next step is surgery. Just because it wasn't broadcast from a mountaintop doesn't mean he's been hiding it or lying

He consistently told reporters that he was healthy through the playoffs. Obviously he was not. That seems like lying to me does it not?

Before playoffs or during playoffs when questions started: "My wrist isn't 100%"

Remaining games: whack whack whack whack whack whack etc

Would have been a bigger distraction had he said I'm hurt, would have been a dumb to say what hurt.

This was the only reason I asked that. I understand hiding it during playoffs. I just didn't get why they'd keep it hidden after the playoffs is all, when everyone reveals they had some sort of bump / bruise.

If he didn't want to reveal it & again give excuses for their loss, then cool. Was just something I was thinking about.

The lad's turning into a man. He's had a lot on his plate with expectations as they are in Pittsburgh and he's learning how to shoulder the load without much fanfare.It was quite ovbious that things weren't normal going down the stretch. Good for him to keep it under wraps for as long as he did.Hope this surgery works out alright and he's back to 100% before too long.

topshelf wrote:The negativity/whining that went on about Crosby's play was downright embarrassing, and I'm gonna love reading this thread this afternoon.

crosby played like s*** and everyone in the organization shouted from the mountains that he was healthy. why shouldn't there have been negativity?

i was a big critic. i was correct given the information i had. for weeks, i even qualified my opinions with, "assuming he's healthy". i don't think this will be the big hubris payoff that the polyanna's are hoping for.if sid was healthy, his performance was abhorrent. if he was injured, then good for him for giving it a go. but it didn't help.

Idoit40fans wrote:The first day after the playoffs all injuries get revealed. They certainly don't come out and say "no, Im completely healthy". This was an extremely bizarre way of handling this injury.

I'm fine with the way it was handled. If this came out immediately afterwards, it would have been seen as excuse making. "Poor Cindy has a boo boo on his wrist..., blah, blah, blah".

I just seriously never understood the questions of Crosby’s heart / effort, etc.. I was the first to say he didn’t look anything like the Crosby we’ve come to love, but some of the stuff people were statingwas ridiculous… I can’t think of a more high-effort, leave everything out there / work-effort guy than 87. Hope this doesn’t linger… seems like every time there’s a “minor surgery” that shouldn’t cause someone to be out long, it ends up becoming a bigger deal